1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming medium that can be used for a printer apparatus, a copy machine, a facsimile apparatus and the like and particularly that is made reusable by removing a toner image or ink image formed thereon, an apparatus for reusing the image forming medium, a method for reusing the image forming medium, and an image forming apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, reuse of an image forming medium has been realized, where image information formed by toner or ink on the image forming medium is removed so that the same image forming medium is repeatedly used for a new image information output. For example, JP-A-11-194685 or JP-A-11-194508 discloses a technique of forming information image with toner or ink on an image forming medium having a photocatalyst-containing surface layer on the surface of a base material or plastic board, then casting near-ultraviolet rays to the surface layer to weaken the adhesion between the image forming medium and the image, then rubbing the image with a brush to erase the image, regenerating the image forming medium, and enabling repeated use of it.
However, with such a traditional image forming medium, it takes a long time to cast light to the photocatalyst in the surface layer in order to effectively remove the image. Therefore, the time required for regenerating the image forming medium is long and the regeneration of the image forming medium may not be able to catch up with the demand for the reuse of the image forming medium.
Thus, an image forming medium, an apparatus for reusing the image forming medium, a method for reusing the image forming medium, and an image forming apparatus are desired that enable easy provision of a necessary reuse image forming medium by reducing the time for removing image information formed on the image forming medium and thereby reducing the time for regenerating the image forming medium.